Costco maintains comp momentum

The company said its sales for the five week January period ended February 3 increased nearly 7% to $9.35 billion as there were increases in member traffic and average transaction sizes. Total company same store sales increased 4%, excluding fuel prices which were slightly lower in January and the impact of foreign currency. The comp performance was negatively affected to the tune of 200 basis points because this year’s reporting period contained one less day than last year due to the timing of the New Year’s holiday.

Costco ended January with 622 warehouses, including 448 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 85 in Canada, 32 in Mexico, 23 in the United Kingdom, 13 in Japan, nine in Taiwan, nine in Korea and three in Australia.